What Should You Know Before Working in a Low-Income School?
Are you thinking about accepting a teaching position in a low-income school? Do you want to work in an inner city? Do you have a desire to teach traditionally marginalized students? If you answered yes to any one of the above questions then you should read this post.
Teaching in a low-income school with traditionally marginalized students is not easy and honestly, not for everyone. I have been at my school for 6 years now, and I have seen teachers come and go because they were not ready for this type of challenge. Now, do not get me wrong, low-income and traditionally marginalized students are not that much different than their counterparts. There are just some unique challenges that teachers must overcome or truths they must accept in order to be successful.
6 Truths About Working in a Low-Income School
1. Your job is to educate, not to make friends.
One thing you will hear about teaching and classroom management is the need to build positive relationships with your students and I agree. To effectively teach, students need to trust that you are knowledgeable, trust that you have their best interest in mind, and trust that you are capable of doing your job. However, building a positive relationship does not mean you step away from professionalism. Remember, they are your students not your friends and your job is to teach. If you find that you are more engaged in students’ drama and personal life than teaching then you are not doing your job. Teachers should know when to engage students so that their students’ social emotional needs are being met, but effective teachers know that once a student is in distress that is when you engage in your school’s counselors and social workers.
2. You can meet the students where they are without sacrificing rigor.
Last school year, only 10% of my students were reading at grade level at the start of the school year. Some people hear statistics like that and choose to water down their curriculum. They decide that they must make the work easier so that it is more manageable for the students. Low-income and traditionally marginalized students do not need that. In fact, denying them rigorous work is actually doing them a disservice. Many well-meaning teachers give their lower-performing students easier work because they want to help, but instead, they are impeding their growth and expanding the achievement gap.
3. Your students need high expectations.
I could have combined this with the truth above, but I separated it because high expectations do not end with providing rigorous lessons. You need to have high expectations with everything you do in the classroom from academics, behavior, conduct and rapport, how students manage their time, to how students take care of their belongings.
4. Your students will try you.
Your students will push their boundaries. All humans do this. All humans test their boundaries from time to time to see how much they can get away with. And students are notorious for this. Establishing clear boundaries for student-teacher relationships, child-adult relationships, and peer relationships are all essential to a functioning classroom.
5. Low-income students are no different than other groups of students.
Low-income students, students of color, and all other traditionally marginalized groups are just like any other students. They have their own unique struggles and challenges. However, to the core, they are still students. Their brains are not wired differently. They behave and act like other students; they want what all students want. They want to be heard and respected. They want to learn. Remembering this truth will put some of your struggles into perspective.
6. You will need to model professionalism.
Our students are products of their environment and speaking from my own experience, the environment in which I teach does not have a reputation of nurturing professionalism. It is common to hear adults engaging in indecent language and conversations in the presence of children. It is common for disagreements to erupt into verbal and physical assaults. Now we as teachers need to model appropriate behavior and responses to different situations and people. We also need to ensure that we are modeling how business is conducted in an academic setting. I demand professionalism from my students, which I model through the conversations I entertain at work and the words I choose to use with my students and adults in the building. Professionalism is one thing I believe my students lack and I want to change that.
Understanding these truths will greatly help you if you do decide to work in a low-income school. Understanding the students, their motivations, and the environment will have you prepared for what you will encounter.
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